


Colour on the Walls

by Newt



Category: RWBY
Genre: F/F, Family, Family Fluff, Fluff, SO MUCH FLUFF, did I mention the fl u f f
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-14
Updated: 2017-03-28
Packaged: 2018-09-24 06:16:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 12,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9707120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Newt/pseuds/Newt
Summary: Blake knows nothing about taking care of kids, but she sure as hell isn’t going to leave these boys here alone. The story of the Xiao Long-Belladonna family, and how they doubled in size that day. More shameless bumbleby fluff in a world where nothing bad happened, now with 200% more tiny children!





	1. A mission

Blake was halfway through a page when she heard Yang’s footsteps approaching. She sighed, sticking her bookmark in awkwardly sideways. Yang always seemed to catch her when it was a bad time to stop. 

“Blaaake!” Yang called, voice sing-songy and joyful. Blake couldn’t help but smile at the warmth of it.

“Hmm?”

Yang turned the corner and appeared in the living room, hair tied up and wearing a tank top and sweat pants. On Blake, it would look sloppy. Yang made it look gorgeous.

Yang approached her in three steps, throwing herself down on the couch next to her and stretching her arms out wildly.

“I was a really good adult today,” she said, hooking a leg over one of Blake’s. “Bills are paid, dinner is in the oven, I checked on Ruby and Weiss and they're not dead yet...”

Blake nodded her approval. The other half of Team RWBY had been on a two-person mission in Vacuo for a few weeks now. 

“Now ask me the good news,” said Yang, leaning in close. Blake’s heart sped up with the closeness, but she kept her cool, the corner of her mouth flicking upwards. 

“What's the good news?”

Yang leaned backwards, throwing up her hands again.

“After this next mission, we can finally budget for an electrician! I figured out our BUDGET, Blake. Now just imagine… toast and laundry… at the same time… no fuses blown or anything…”

Blake giggled, holding a hand up to her mouth. 

“We lead a glamorous life.”

“You know it.”

"Now are you going to ask me if I found any missions?" asked Blake, putting her book down on the coffee table and picking up her scroll.

"I'm thinking yes."

Blake nodded, swiping onto the list of possible missions that she'd been compiling. Sitting at home while Ruby and Weiss were out had started to weigh on her, and she was ready to start a job, just her and Yang.

Yang let out a low whistle.

"That's, um... quite the list."

She pulled the scroll from Blake's hand to take a look.

"Well, I did have one in mind," admitted Blake. Yang turned to look at her, and Blake knew it was already a done deal. Anything that Blake felt was an important mission was usually exactly the sort of thing Yang wanted to do. This one should include a good helping of adventure, too, just the way Yang liked it. And yet...

Blake took the scroll back, bringing up the mission description. Yang looked at it as Blake scrolled through, chin resting on her shoulder.

A woman, Delia Jade, age 23, was missing from a village on the outskirts of Vale. She’d set forth into unclaimed land, and hadn’t been seen or heard from since. They’d been searching for her for a few days, and were beginning to suspect grimm activity. The mission was to be completed as soon as possible, and the huntsmen and/or huntresses who accepted it were to report to the client immediately after accepting.

The mission had already been left unclaimed for 24 hours, and the woman could be anywhere by now. Blake absolutely hated the idea of finding a corpse, but more than that she hated the idea of the woman being killed due to a lack of hunter response. Yang nodded slowly as she read, and Blake chewed on her lip, debating if they were up for this.

"I think we should do it," said Yang. "It's important."

Blake nodded, grateful. She brought her finger over the "accept mission" button, and paused.

"You're sure about this?"

"Of course."

Yang was so straightforward about these things. Save the day, protect the public, shelve your fear. It steadied Blake, and gave her the strength she needed to continue.

She nodded solemnly, releasing a breath as she pressed the button. Yang watched in silence as Blake entered their information, received the full mission report, and passed the scroll to Yang to see if she had any further questions. Yang immediately sent a copy to the Team RWBY group conversation, snickering to herself.

“So that we can make Ruby jealous once we find this lady,” said Yang, winking at Blake.

Blake smiled uneasily. She knew Yang well enough to know that her cockiness was fake. She was just as worried as Blake was about being too late. But they had to try.

“Well, we should start packing.”

**********

Yang put her fist on her hip, checking the address on her scroll one last time.

"Yep, this is definitely the place."

Blake bit her lip, craning her neck to get a good look at the regal old building. It was some sort of church, nestled into the heart of the little village, and it seemed pleasant enough. They’d been travelling all day, and had reached the city at nightfall. A few lamps lit the way up to the large white doorway, casting long shadows that only added to the warmth of the place. Flowering trees brushed against the side of the building, bending lazily in the night air. Hanging on the door were two intricate doorknockers shaped like the two brothers from the old religious tales.

“There’s two. Should we both knock at once?” asked Yang, grinning. She seemed kind of excited about the idea, and Blake smiled at her spirit. Even after five years of living in a house of her own, paying bills and acting like an adult, Yang liked to cherish the simpler things in life.

“Sure,” said Blake, fighting the urge to roll her eyes.

She reached up a hand towards the knocker on the right, the one of the brother she thought might be the evil one, if she was remembering her religion right. Yang took the other one, counting down.

“Three, two, one, knock.”

They hammered on the door, Yang more enthusiastically than Blake, and then stepped back. Yang gave Blake a thumbs up, then smiled again, turning back towards the door. Blake smiled too, adjusting the strap of her bag on her shoulder.

“Hello?”

The door opened to a tall, middle-aged man, adjusting a pair of wire glasses between two spindly fingers.

“Hello!” Yang said. “We’re the huntresses who accepted your mission. We’re ready to go as soon as possible.”

An enormous look of relief crossed the man’s face.

“Oh, of course! My, it is so good to meet you. Thank you so much for your services. I’ll be sure to debrief you quickly, but, oh dear why don’t you come in? It’s quite dark out now, and you’ve been travelling for so long. Are you hungry? I’ve prepared some soup for tonight.”

He took turns wringing their hands as he spoke. Blake pulled back unconsciously. 

“We don’t want to trouble you,” said Blake, and Yang shot her a look of betrayal. They were admittedly both pretty hungry from the travelling. Luckily, the man seemed to catch on to this.

“Nonsense, nonsense! It’s no trouble at all. Come in, come in…”

They stepped inside after the man, his long robes brushing the carpeted floor. The hallway was dimly lit and regal, with historical paintings lining the walls. Blake recognized a few scenes from her studies at Beacon.

“My name is Clement, by the way,” said the man, reaching out to shake their hands again

“I’m Yang, and my partner here is Blake,” said Yang, accepting his handshake for the hundredth time. 

Blake grinned, taking her turn shaking his hand as well. It used to annoy her a bit when Yang would introduce them both, since she was perfectly capable of introducing herself, but seeing the way Yang lit up at the simple ‘my partner’ warmed Blake to the core. 

Clement nodded, turning back around.

“Excellent, excellent. We eat in this room here…”

The man led them into a pleasant little dining room, with a long wooden table and bench set up for a great deal of visitors. A disheveled man in ragged clothes sat at the end of the table, drinking soup straight from a bowl and looking at them suspiciously.

“Ah, yes. This is Topasz, one of our regulars. Say hello, Topasz!”

The man raised one hand in greeting, not lifting his face from the bowl. Blake raised a hand in return, and Yang let out a small “hello”.

Clement set to work preparing bowls of soup for both Yang and Blake, and set them up on one side of the table. Yang began eating immediately, but Blake waited for Clement to sit down across from them, folding his hands and sighing.

“Well, I suppose you know what the issue is. We’ve been looking for Ms. Jade for several days now, and the most we’ve found are smaller signs… a few of her possessions, some campfire remains, things like that. She has no prior combat experience, so we’re worried about her ability to survive on her own.”

Yang nodded, spoon dangling from her mouth as she took notes on her scroll. Blake hovered over her shoulder, listening carefully as Clement explained more logistics; exact locations of signs, grimm native to the area, that sort of thing.

He finished up with a deep sigh, adjusting his glasses to stare down at the table. Blake could tell that he was very troubled by this disappearance. He glanced back up with a weak smile.

“So, do you have any further qu…”

Before Clement could finish speaking, the door to the dining room exploded open, crashing against the wall with a sound that startled Blake out of her chair. Her head whipped towards the noise, only to find two young boys running in at top speed, heading straight for Clement.

They were grubby looking, dark hair disheveled and too-big clothing unkempt, but that didn’t stop them from wearing hugely wide smiles. A bushy tail flicked as the younger of the two tripped and fell, then pushed himself masterfully back to his feet. The older pointed and laughed at him, rounded ears twitching atop his head. They were faunus.

Topasz made a vague groaning sound, then stood up to clear his things and vanish. The boys tugged on the sleeve of Clement’s robe, hopping up and down.

“Mister Clement! What’s for dinner?” asked the oldest. “I’m sooo hungry!”

“Me tooooo!” agreed the youngest, in the careful English of a child who was still new to speaking.

“Boys, please settle down,” said Clement, working his way out of their grasp. “We have soup for you tonight, but only if you sit down politely and greet our guests.”

He gestured towards Blake and Yang, and Blake’s heart jolted. She was not used to children. She did not like the attention of children. She honestly just didn’t know how to act around them.

Yang, on the other hand, beamed at them, waving heartily.

“Hello there! I’m Yang. This quiet lady is my partner, Blake.”

“Hello,” said Blake, weakly.

The boys didn’t say anything in response. The younger shrunk back, still clutching at Clement’s sleeve, and the older frowned, suddenly shy.

“Now now, boys, be kind. Blake and Yang are here to help!” said Clement, freeing up a hand to pat the youngest on the head. “These two are going to find your mother.”

Blake blinked, completely taken aback. She felt Yang tense beside her. 

“Find mama?” asked the youngest, quietly.

“Yes, they will,” said Clement.

The oldest took a long look at them, considering. Blake shifted in her seat, suddenly nervous. He had deeply blue eyes, stormy and older, somehow, than the rest of his face. The boy finally turned back to Clement, frowning.

“Can we have dinner now?”

“How do you ask?”

“Can we please have dinner now?”

“Yes you may.”

The boys grinned, and took off running again.

**********

“The older is Nickel, and the younger Onyx. They’ve been visiting this church regularly for quite a while now, usually with their mother, although sometimes she would leave them to their own devices.”

Clement’s face scrunched up, as if he didn’t approve.

“Nick is six years old, and Onyx is a little past three. I think they’re too young to fully understand what’s happening right now. I’ve been trying to keep an eye on them, feeding them and letting them sleep in the church, but they’ve mostly been running amok since their mother disappeared.”

Blake nodded, glancing over to where the boys now sat, playing some game that involved a lot of screaming and sound effects.

“Poor kids,” said Yang, looking over to them wistfully. Blake hoped this wasn’t reminding her too much of the unpleasant parts of her own childhood.

“Poor kids indeed,” Clement sighed.

There was a silence, pierced only by Onyx’s shrieks.

“Well,” said Clement, glancing at a clock on the wall. “It’s much too dark out for you to start your mission now. I’d say begin as soon as possible tomorrow morning.”

Blake nodded slowly. Yang was still watching the kids play. 

“Tomorrow morning it is,” said Blake, nudging Yang softly. Yang jolted to attention.

“Wha, huh? Oh, yeah. Tomorrow morning.”

**********

Blake emerged from the bathroom in her pyjamas, and headed towards the room she and Yang had been given, exhausted from travelling and ready to crash. She opened the door to find the room empty, with just a few suitcases pushed into the corner. The covers of one of the beds were flung back, as if Yang had settled in, and then changed her mind.

Blake frowned, then listened for any signs of her partner nearby. She’d grown very used to the sounds of Yang’s footsteps and, well, her hearing had always been pretty good anyway.

She didn’t have to listen for long. From the room next door, she heard a yell. 

“Ouch! No!”

It was Yang.

“Yang!” Blake called, heart racing. She didn’t know what was happening, but she felt the primal need to protect Yang.

She dashed next door, feet brushing against the carpet, mind racing, and threw open the door.

There stood Yang, laughing now, as Nickel and Onyx stood by her, eyes wide as they looked to Blake. Yang twisted around towards her as well, then broke into a maniacal grin.

“Let’s get her,” she said, pointing towards Blake. 

“Huh?” 

Nickel and Onyx giggled, then started shuffling their socked feet across the carpet. Blake took a step backward as they headed towards her, evil glints in their eyes.

The oldest, Nickel, got to her first, reaching out a finger towards her stomach. There was a jolt of electricity.

“Ouch! Hey!”

The youngest came up next, poking at her leg. Nothing happened.

“Nick, I can’t,” he said, face falling.

“Of course you can!” said Yang, bounding towards Blake, shuffling her own feet. “Like this!”

Yang poked Blake’s elbow, giving her an even bigger shock. Blake rubbed at it, anger building. She’d thought Yang was in trouble.

“What are you doing in here?”

Yang folded her arms, glancing down at the two boys, now shuffling again and trying to shock one another.

“I just realized how thick the carpets were in here, and thought I’d teach them a trick.”

Blake noticed how much she lit up as she talked about the boys. It was something she’d always known about Yang, the fact that she loved kids. She’d practically raised Ruby since she was a kid herself, and there was something incredibly motherly inside her. 

“We have to get up early tomorrow,” Blake reminded her, moving from foot to foot.

“I know. I’ll be there soon,” said Yang, eyes flitting to the kids again.

“Okay,” said Blake, still moving. She leaned in to peck Yang on the cheek, and, sneakily, tapped Yang on the arm just before the kiss landed. A spark of electricity crackled between them. Yang’s mouth opened wide in shock, then she dissolved into laughter. She kissed Blake back, then headed off again to play with the boys. 


	2. Mother

“You know, this tracking thing would be a lot easier if we had a dog.”

Yang linked her hands behind her neck, glancing around the forest. 

“No dog,” said Blake, for about the thousandth time in their relationship. Yang smirked.

They took a few steps, glancing around in silence. It had been a full twenty-four hours since they’d set off looking for Delia Jade, with minimal sleeping and quite a few daring battles with grimm. Blake was fine, her endurance letting her carry on pretty well, but she could tell Yang was starting to get annoyed. 

“I don’t see any signs of struggle!” Yang said, throwing her hands in the air. “I just don’t get it. A totally untrained lady, staying in the forest for days, but no run-ins with grimm? Signs of campfires, some old food wrappers, she dropped a hat, but she didn’t try to get home? Nothing? Why did she come here in the first place?”

Blake shook her head, wrapping her arms around herself. It really didn’t make any sense at all. 

There was a rustling behind them, and Blake sank down into a fighter’s stance. Yang grinned at her as the beowolf caught sight of them, then leapt aside as it charged.

Blake barely had time to draw her blade before Yang came crashing down on the beowolf’s head, letting out a war cry. Blake smiled at her, golden hair reflecting sunlight and grin brightening her face and body perfectly poised for the kill. Yang was still on top of things, it seemed. 

The grimm dissolved into dust, and Blake tore her gaze away. She slid her weapon back in its holster, sighing. Time to move on.

**********

By the time the third night of their journey rolled around, Blake could tell that Yang was upset. The sun was disappearing quickly, and the trees that were quickly seeming more and more mundane to Blake cast long, ominous shadows. Yang’s mouth was drawn into a thin frown as she paced among the foliage, still looking for clues. Blake had just about given up, herself.

She paused and leaned against a tree, feeling exhaustion sweep over her. Two nights of sleeping in shifts was harsh on her body. Any longer and her hunting abilities would be impaired. Not good.

Yang threw up her hands suddenly, letting out a cry of frustration.

“That’s it!”

Yang stomped over to Blake, slumping against another tree and staring at her intensely with red eyes. Blake looked back, unafraid.

“If I have to sleep in this forest for one more night I’m gonna explode! I need real food, and a hot shower, and… oogh!”

Yang punched the tree lightly, rustling a low-hanging branch into Blake’s shoulder.

Blake sighed. She was right.

“There’s a village not far from here,” she said, wiggling her cat ears. “I can hear them.”

Yang’s mouth fell open. She blinked, her eyes turning back to their usual captivating shade of violet.

“You’re saying we can go? Stay in a hotel? Sleep at the same time? All that?”

Blake nodded, and Yang actually laughed out loud.

“Oooh Blake, I could kiss you!”

Blake smiled, pointing to her mouth. Yang obliged, a quick peck that made Blake’s fingers tingle a little.

“Goodbye forest, hello shower!”

**********

Blake and Yang walked into the first hotel they saw, a cabin-style place with long, dimly lit hallways. The place honestly gave Blake a bad feeling, but she ignored it, watching how relieved and happy Yang was to finally be back in civilization.

Yang walked up to the main desk in short, quick steps, planting her palms on the counter.

“We’ll take a room, please!”

The man behind the counter looked up at her from the magazine he was reading. 

“Sorry, no vacancies.”

Yang slammed her hands down again.

“Please.”

The guy sighed, laying down his magazine.

“Look, lady, it’s late. We only have four rooms here, and the only one that you could possibly stay in is being cleaned right now. Won’t be ready for a few hours. Can I suggest the next village over?”

“You can’t,” said Yang, with another, firmer slam of her hands. Blake winced, silently begging her not to lose her cool.

“We don’t mind waiting,” Blake cut in. “How long until the room is ready?”

The guy sighed, picking up the phone on his desk. After some negotiations on Blake’s part, the two of them had a key in hand and the promise of a room in three hours. The guy behind the counter went back to his magazine, licking his thumb and flipping the page over to a full-colour picture of one of the achieve men.

“So, where should we go for three hours?” asked Yang, spinning the key around one finger by the chain. 

Blake’s stomach growled in response. Yang laughed.

"Dinner it is!"

**********

Following the trend of sketchy cabin-style buildings, the local bar in this village was rather dark and run-down. Yang pushed open the door confidently, and Blake followed, glancing at a sign that said “please seat yourself”, and pointing towards the bar, which she knew was always Yang’s favourite spot to sit.

“Shall we?” she asked, waiting to see her partner’s knowing smile. Instead, Yang looked dumbfounded, mouth hanging slack, eyes wide.

“Yang?”

Blake followed her gaze, and immediately felt a surge of adrenaline.

“Is… is that?” 

Yang took off towards the bar, boots clacking powerfully on the floor, heads turning towards her. 

The woman at the bar was quite young, with dark, short-cropped hair, and deer faunus ears perked up joyfully. She was laughing carelessly with a couple of men, swirling a drink around as she leaned in towards one. Nothing about her was particularly standout, which is why no one would ever have thought to check where she’d come from, or who was looking for her.

But Blake had memorized everything about Delia Jade. Spent days looking for her, expecting her to be hurt or scared or dead. This radiant, cheerful version of Delia clashed so harshly with the picture of her in Blake’s mind that she could do nothing but stare, all while Yang stepped up to her, pushing an arm in between Delia and the man of her attentions.

“Delia Jade,” she said, so loudly that a hush fell over the bar. Yang’s voice broke Blake out of her stupor, and she walked up to Yang as quickly as she could, trying to keep her from starting something.

Delia went pale as a sheet, withdrawing into herself. 

“We’ve been looking everywhere for you! What the hell is going on?”

Yang’s eyes weren’t red just yet, but Blake could feel it coming. She put a hand on Yang’s arm, feeling her tensed muscles and hoping to calm her down a bit.

“Hey, what do you want, blondie?” slurred the man, leaning into Yang, obviously drunk. Yang brushed him off, still staring at Delia, whose eyes were darting around frantically.

“We should take this elsewhere,” said Blake, trying not to look at the staring bar patrons. “We’re here to help you.”

Yang nodded, probably more aggressively than she should have. 

“Let me come with you, sweetheart,” said the guy, leaning forward again. 

“No. This is between us and her,” said Yang, not even looking at the guy.

“Hey now…”

Blake gasped as the second guy took a swing at Yang, seemingly out of nowhere. Yang reacted quickly, catching his arm and twisting it painfully. Delia squeaked.

“We just want to talk,” said Yang, throwing the guy’s arm to the side, and knocking him off balance. Delia nodded slowly, clearly terrified.

“Okay.”

**********

“Here’s good,” said Blake, pointing into a spare room upstairs of the bar. It seemed to be a staff breakroom, with a sad table, mismatched chairs, and a stained old microwave to show for it.

Yang nodded, walking in and taking a seat on a countertop, folding her arms. She gestured to a nearby chair, and Delia sank into it, trembling.

Blake took the chair next to her, trying as hard as she could to not scare her. They just needed to know what was going on.

“Clement is looking for you,” said Yang simply, tapping a finger against her arm.

Delia croaked out a half-word, then cleared her throat to continue.

“I know.”

Yang raised her eyebrows.

“You know?”

Delia nodded slowly.

“I knew he would. I just… I had to go. I didn’t think he’d call…”

She gestured to Yang, and then Blake.

“Huntresses. We’re huntresses, Delia. Clement thought you were dead.”

Delia paled farther, her ears drooping.

“It’s better if he thinks that.”

Yang frowned. Blake cut in before she could bite back.

“We’re trying to understand what’s happening here. Why did you leave? And how?”

Delia bit her lip, bouncing her crossed leg.

“I… I called a huntsman. Someone to escort me here. He’s coming back tomorrow to take me… take me to the city…”

“She asked why, first,” said Yang, clearly out of patience. 

“I…”

Delia glanced from Yang to Blake, settling on Blake instead as she continued talking.

“You’re both women, you have to understand. I… I need a better life. I need to work on me. I can’t stay trapped out here forever.”

“What?” burst out Yang. “You have kids! While you ‘work on yourself’ what are they gonna do?”

Delia winced, then scowled. She took a deep breath, and came back steady and strong.

“Do you know how old I was when I had Nickel?” she stomped her foot, voice growing shaky. “Seventeen. I was seventeen years old, and scared, and roped into the white fang!”

Blake inhaled sharply, but Delia continued on, not noticing.

“I met some guy who turned out to be a major nobody, had two kids, followed the white fang for four years of my life, and lost everything that I was! But now, I have the chance to turn my life around! You can’t understand, what it’s like to live with this! To live with the stuff I did, and the person I was, and to have these… these _reminders_.”

“I think I have a pretty good idea,” said Blake icily. She felt hatred coursing through her veins. She dared not look at Yang, for fear they would both explode.

“You can’t. You can’t know what it’s like,” Delia continued, shaking her head fervently.

“So you’re just going to run away?” asked Blake, voice louder than she would have liked. “You think running is the answer? You have to take some responsibility! You can’t just… just disappear like…”

“I can, and I am!” barked Delia, rising out of her chair. 

“DON’T yell at her!”

Yang sprung off the counter, hands clenched into fists. Her eyes burned red, and heat radiated from her. Blake wasn’t in the state to calm her anymore.

“Don’t you dare yell at her! You good-for-nothing little…”

Yang took a step forward, and Delia flinched. 

“You might want to start your life over, you might want to focus on you, that’s all well and good, but think about your kids! You might be able to start over, but, to them, you’re all they know! They’re going to… they’re going to be confused, and afraid, and they’re going to spend their whole lives searching for you, and thinking about you, and wondering what they did wrong... what they could have done to make you stay.”

Delia had tears in her eyes now, which just made Yang angrier.

“Go back there! Go back there right now and tell them! If you’re going to leave them, say it to them! Let them know it’s your own damn fault!”

“I can’t.”

Delia’s voice cracked, and she blinked, tears streaming down her face. 

“It’s so hard. Leaving them. I can’t see them again, or I’ll…”

“Or you’ll what?” snapped Yang. “You’ll take them with you? Maybe take care of them? Go back to being their mother?”

Delia covered her hand, letting out a muffled sob.

“Coward,” said Blake, quietly. “She’s a coward, Yang. You can’t convince her to…”

“Hey, what’s going on here?”

Two burly bouncers stepped into the room, glaring from Delia to Yang and back. 

“Do you need help, ma’am?”

Delia nodded, a raw half-scream breaking through her tears.

“Get them out of here!” 

“No need. We were on our way out,” said Blake, giving Delia one last, hard look.

She ran her fingertips down Yang’s forearm, trying to snap her out of it. Yang continued to glare daggers at Delia, then pulled her gaze away, focusing instead on Blake. A blink, and her eyes were violet again. Blake noticed tears collecting in the corners, and her heart broke for her as she looked away, leading her down the stairs and out of the bar.

**********

Even after all of their fighting to get a room that night, neither Blake nor Yang could sleep. Blake held Yang, breathing in her freshly-washed hair smell as Yang’s muscles slowly grew less tense, though she was still visibly angry about their conversation with Delia. They’d spent a full hour just going over it, and now, finally, there was nothing left to say.

Blake lay in the darkness, visions of those kids flitting through her head, no matter how hard she tried to stop them. They were shy, but rambunctious, they liked causing trouble and playing, just a pair of regular kids who were about to have their worlds shattered. Mostly, she couldn’t stop thinking about that bushy tail and those rounded ears, the faunus traits that would make them oh-so vulnerable to white fang recruiters. She remembered how Adam had helped start a campaign that just loved to snatch up lonely faunus kids, and raise them to hate, and destroy, and believe everything they were told…

Blake’s arm was falling asleep. She readjusted, and Yang sighed softly.

And then there was Yang. Yang, whose mother had abandoned her as a child as well. Yang, who had spent most of her life obsessed with finding her, learning about her, only to be disappointed by what she found. Only these kids had no father to put them back on track, no loving home and stable childhood to fall back on. What would happen to them now?

Eventually, Yang fell into an uneasy sleep, her breath tickling Blake’s neck as her thoughts spiralled. More and more memories of the children in the white fang were coming back to haunt her, and no matter how hard she tried she couldn’t help but picture Nickel and Onyx in those horrible masks, committing crimes, violently isolating themselves from humanity, doing all the things Blake had done, once. 

Thinking about her white fang days just tortured her more, until the anxiety in her stomach was almost too much to bear. She caught herself, and tried to calm down. As she usually did when she got into this state at night, she focused on Yang. The feel of her skin and her pulse and her warmth, the sound of her breathing, the rhythm of it. She counted the breaths, in… out… in… out.

Slowly, torturously, she counted herself to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuaaaaaaaaa"  
> This author's note is brought to you by the pet rat that I just gently placed on my keyboard. Anyway. Parenting stuff starts next chapter, I'm excited to start writing it :D  
> (also sorry if this chapter seems rushed, time will tell if my editing skills are good enough for a same-day post of a chapter I wrote)


	3. Decisions are Made

Clement gazed at his hands, clasped together on the table. His brow was furrowed, the lines of his face sunken with concern.

“I see… so that’s how it is. Thank you for telling me this, friends.”

Blake bit her lip, and Yang looked away. They couldn’t respond to that. It wasn’t a real expression of thanks. Not with the news they’d had to deliver.

Yang had spent the entire walk back to the village silent and moody. Blake had walked beside her the whole time, offering her food and water that she took with only a few empty smiles. Blake had started out by trying to comfort Yang, giving her small squeezes of her hand and asking if there was anything she could do. Nothing seemed to rouse her from her own head, and Blake had had to give up. She wasn’t good at comforting people, not like Yang was.

The entire time anxiety twisted in Blake’s stomach as well. This was the moment they’d been least looking forward to; coming back to tell Clement that he now had two homeless children on his hands.

She just wished there was something she could do, especially now, as Yang breathed heavily beside her and Clement fiddled with a ring on his finger and silence gripped them all with dense fists.

The image of a white fang mask flashed through Blake’s mind again. Her sleep had been full of nightmares like this, and she couldn’t stand it any longer.

“What… what’s going to happen to them?” she burst out. 

Clement startled, blinking up at her. Yang slowly turned her head.

“To those kids. What will they do now?”

Blake’s heart thundered. This was maybe not a good time to ask, but she had to know. Maybe she could help figure out a plan for them, somehow.

“I…”

Clement bit his lip.

“I’m afraid I don’t have the means to care for them long-term. I suppose… I suppose we’ll have to find other arrangements. Perhaps an orphanage…”

His face crumpled again, as if the thought of it destroyed him.

Blake glanced over towards Yang, and what she saw tore her apart. Yang was hiding tears as best as she could, wiping them angrily on her sleeve as they came. She was frowning deeply, face strained, and it made every muscle in Blake’s body ache. She wanted nothing more than to make her smile again. She’d almost never seen Yang like this, exhibiting sadness so openly. Yang was always the type to get angry through her sadness, to throw some punches, to yell and erupt.

The last time Blake had seen her like this had been after a mission, where Ruby had been very injured, and hospitalized. Ruby had been fine within the day, but Yang was completely distraught, every familial instinct tearing her apart. And now, more of the same. It was a side of her that Blake was drawn to and afraid of, that crushed her, that made her want to do some very reckless things…

“We can take them home with us,” said Blake, voice hollow and distant, as if it wasn’t her own.

Clement’s mouth fell open, and he stopped fidgeting instantly.

“Pardon me?”

Blake inhaled, heart pounding against her sternum.

“I mean, we have the space. And, well, we have talked about kids before, right Yang?”

That conversation had ended with Blake anxiously changing the subject, but that wasn’t important right now. As Blake turned towards Yang, her world put itself back together. Yang was smiling again, positively radiant with excitement, eyes wide open in surprise and joy. 

“Are you serious?” she asked, voice low.

“I…”

More masks danced through her head. Coupled with sad Yang, it was too much. She closed her eyes and nodded.

“I guess we could look after them for a while.”

“Ooooh, Blake!” 

Yang launched herself onto Blake, wrapping her up in a crushing hug. She buried her face in Blake’s neck, and Blake blushed slightly as Clement looked on, still shocked.

“This is a big responsibility, you know,” he said, voice laced with nervousness. “These boys have never been to the city before. And they’re still very young. This isn’t a decision to make so hastily.”

“We’re sure,” said Yang, pulling away from Blake with determination. “I really want this.”

Clement frowned, obviously weighing his options mentally. After an excruciating silence, he spoke.

“Well, I suppose we’ll have to ask the boys what they think about all of this.”

**********

“Oh, there they are!” said Clement, pointing into the distance. 

Blake felt a spike of nerves as she caught sight of the boys. They had taken off that morning, wandering throughout the village. Clement said that they tended to make rounds to a few of the same places, without anyone to hold them back or look after them. 

Now, they were at the market, talking to a tall woman with a bakery stand. Blake watched as she handed them each a treat of some sort, and they took off running. Clement lunged forward.

“Wait! Nick! Onyx!”

He started speed walking after them, and the boys spun around, waving at him. Yang followed, and then Blake, chewing on the inside of her lip.

When they caught up, Onyx was taking ravenous bites of a cream horn, while Nickel held his own guiltily. 

“You two remember Yang and Blake, don’t you?” asked Clement, gesturing towards them. 

Nickel nodded slowly, while Onyx spoke through a mouthful of pastry.

“Momma?”

“Um, well, yes. We’ll tell you all about their adventure to find her. Why don’t you two come back to the church with us for now?”

Onyx looked towards Nickel. Nickel didn’t move.

“Did you find her?” he asked, frowning. His small fingers fiddled with a hole in his sweater.

Blake fidgeted nervously.

“Don’t you worry about your mom,” said Yang, fake-cheerfully. “We just have lots and lots to tell you, so we should go find somewhere to sit down.”

Onyx nodded, extending a sticky, icing-covered hand towards Clement, who took it without hesitation. Nickel still looked suspicious, but followed behind as Clement lead the way back to the church.

**********

“We can’t _leave_ ,” said Nickel, wrinkling his nose in disgust. “How will mommy find us?”

Blake looked back and forth from Yang to Clement, all of them too afraid to tell the truth.

Onyx was fidgeting, slipping off of his bench and then jumping back up, clearly bored with the conversation. He nodded along with everything Nickel said, as his older brother protested.   
  
Suddenly, Onyx caught Blake’s eye, staring at her as he fidgeted. His eyes were less stormy than Nickel’s, a deep, innocent grey that looked at her with simple curiosity. Blake froze, nervous. She really didn’t know how to talk to kids, and she felt like she was about to crumple under his gaze, and just admit everything.

Luckily, Yang swooped in to save the day. 

“We met your mom while we were out,” said Yang, slowly. “She misses you, too. But until she can come back, she thinks you should have somewhere nice to live.”

“No!” shouted Nickel, shoving himself away from the table. The bench made a horrible scraping noise, and Clement winced.

“No!” repeated Onyx, looking to Nickel for approval before balling up his hand into a fist and punching the bench. His tail was puffed out completely. 

“Now, boys…”

Before Clement could finish, the boys took off, running out of the kitchen and slamming the door behind them.

Yang jumped out of her own seat, desperation crossing her face. 

“Can I go after them?” she asked Clement.

“I suppose someone should,” he said, burying his face in his hands.

Without another word Yang took off, slamming the door a little less harshly than the boys had.

There was an uncomfortable silence as Blake sat, unsure whether to follow Yang, comfort Clement, or just wait for it to play out as it would. She settled on fidgeting with her collar.

Finally, Clement looked up, addressing Blake apologetically.

“This isn’t going to be easy, you know. They’re very strong-minded, those boys.”

Blake nodded, unsure of how to respond. 

“They’re… they’re good kids. I just want them to be happy.”

Blake nodded again.

“So… if you have any doubts at all, any misgivings about taking care of them…”

Clement slid a card across the table. It was a business card of sorts, with his name, number, and address.

“Please don’t feel guilty if it doesn’t work out. I will assume responsibility for finding them somewhere to stay.”

Blake’s mouth was dry as she took the card, pocketing it slowly. Realizing she’d been silent for maybe too long, she forced herself to speak.

“It’s really no trouble.”

Her voice came out as an unconvincing croak.

“I collected all of their things from their mother’s old lodgings,” said Clement. “They didn’t have much, but there will be clothes, that sort of thing, in their room to be packed up. I also have several documents that I suppose you’ll be needing.”

Clement produced a manila envelope, seemingly out of nowhere, and passed it to Blake. She opened it warily, sliding the papers half out to thumb through them.

“Birth certificates, medical records, all that sort of thing,” said Clement.

As Blake flipped through the important documents, her dread grew and grew. This was serious, and official, and really happening. She was taking two kids home, and she didn’t know what to do, and they were real people with real documentation and all of it was in her hands, right now.

“All you really need to know is that Onyx is allergic to insect stings. Otherwise, they’re both quite healthy.”

“Oh, okay.”

There was another silence. Blake started scanning the papers more carefully, but her brain could hardly register any of it. They were both so young, and now they were her responsibility. She had to care for them. Blake new absolutely nothing about raising kids. All she knew was that she sure as hell wasn’t going to leave these two alone.

“They can be rambunctious, but I’m sure you’ll be good for them,” said Clement quietly. “They need a stable environment, after all they’ve been through.”

Blake nodded again, hands gripping the papers maybe a bit too tightly.

"And please... try to call. Let me know how they're doing. I... well, with all due respect, I don't know you that well yet, personally. In fact, I'd like to visit, if that's alright."

Blake nodded again.

“I promise, they’re good kids,” repeated Clement, as if reassuring himself as well.

There was a loud sound from somewhere in the building, and then crying. Yang shouted something.

Blake slid the papers back into the envelope.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It seems like every time I write a chapter of this thing, the total number of chapters I have planned out grows. I just have so many dumb ideas. Get ready for some hardcore domestic fluff!


	4. Homecoming

Onyx held the fabric of his older brother’s shirt in his tiny fists as the boys were lead around the house. Neither of them said anything, just shrunk further and further into themselves as Yang talked too much and Blake talked too little and tension smothered them all. They made their way slowly through the second floor, then paused in front of the room at the end of the hall. 

“Well, there you go. That’s the tour,” said Yang, a little too loudly, twisting the ends of her hair.

Blake had been incredibly on edge ever since they’d brought the kids in the door. Seeing them here, in their home, suddenly made it real for her, and she was completely panicking on the inside.

Neither boy said anything. Onyx buried his face in Nickel’s shirt. 

Yang’s mouth twisted upward, and she knelt down, slowly and gently.

“We were thinking that you two could sleep in the same room. The spare room here, does that sound good?”

Yang gestured to their spare room. It was basically just storage right now, full of dusty old boxes, tools, books, just general things that they could probably never find in the mess, even if they ever needed them.

Nickel shook his head, hard.

“I don’t wanna sleep on the floor,” he said. It was the first thing he’d said since coming inside the house.

Yang laughed a little, and he stepped back away from her.

“Oh, sorry! I’m not laughing at you, okay? You’re right, there’s no beds in here right now, but we’ll get this room all set up for you soon. For now…”

Yang bit her lip, looking up to Blake. Blake folded her arms, sharing a silent thought with Yang. 

Whenever they had guests, they’d pull out the same musty old air mattress, and get them to sleep in the living room. But maybe that wasn’t a good idea for two kids that they’d just… kind of… adopted?

“I guess… they could sleep in our bed for tonight?” said Blake, quietly. “It’s already pretty late.”

Yang nodded, then turned back towards Nickel.

“How does that sound? You can have the big comfy bed all to yourselves. And then tomorrow we’ll go shopping and buy you beds.”

Nickel nodded slowly, not looking at Yang. He pushed Onyx off of him, so forcefully and suddenly that Onyx fell over. Onyx looked up at him, shock registering on his face, then burst into tears.

Blake’s nerves, already on edge, sent electricity down her spine.

“Ah, Nickel! You have to be nice to your little brother! Onyx, are you okay?” Yang reached out a hand towards Onyx, but he only cried harder. Nickel pushed Yang’s hand away, then turned and bolted.

“Wait!”

Nickel ran past Blake, and she stepped out of the way, on impulse. He barreled on down the hall, then into Yang and Blake’s room. Blake heard the door slam shut, leaving her and Yang to exchange worried looks as Onyx continued to cry.

Deciding to deal with the more pressing situation, Yang scooted towards Onyx, still kneeling. 

“Hey, are you okay? Does it hurt?”

Onyx nodded, sniffling.

“Where did you get hurt?”

He pointed to his tail, still sniffling. Blake noticed there was snot running down his face, and bit back the urge to look away.

“Can I help you back up?” asked Yang, extending a hand.

“Uh huh.”

Onyx took her hand, and they slowly stood up together, Onyx calming down suddenly and completely. His free hand went to wiping his face on his shirt, with a whole lot of snuffling noises. Blake flinched, but softened at the look on Yang’s face as she held his hand. 

“Let’s go check on your brother,” she said, softly. “Blake?”

Yang looked towards her, then bit her lip, considering. 

“Blake, maybe… you could put sheets on the air mattress for us?”

Blake’s heart sank. She hadn’t thought her nervousness was so easy to see. Could kids smell fear? Like animals?

“I’ll be out soon,” said Yang, with a small smile.

**********

Blake cuddled in close to Yang, trying to steady herself to the sound of her breathing. Usually Yang was the cuddly one, but Blake needed this, tonight.

She felt Yang’s heartbeat against her own, and breathed in her smell, and grounded herself as much as possible. She tried not to focus on the kids sleeping just a few rooms over. She failed.

After a while of lying like that, she desperately wanted to roll over, try to get more comfortable, but she was afraid of waking Yang. After a few more minutes, her leg fell asleep. Slowly, carefully, she shifted, rolling over onto her back, trying her best to take Yang with her. She was just sliding her leg down further under the blankets, when Yang spoke.

“Blake?”

Her voice was clear, and Blake knew that she’d never been sleeping in the first place.

“Hm?”

Yang untangled herself, lying on her back with her arms resting on her ribs.

“Did we make a mistake?”

Blake didn’t know how to answer that. She threw an arm over her forehead.

“With the kids, you mean? Taking them in?”

“I don’t really know how to raise kids. And we’re both still young, and we have to take on jobs, and they’re both just so scared, and…”

Yang laughed, bitterly.

“And, I don’t know, I’m scared too, I guess. We made a decision in one second that’s gonna affect the rest of our lives, unless we give up, and feel awful, and… I just felt so bad for them, you know?”

“I know.”

“Augh, Blake, you don’t even want kids, do you? This is all because of me. I always rush into things, people always say that about me. And it always gets us in trouble like this.”

Yang’s voice trembled a bit, and Blake’s fingers curled in fear.

“No! Don’t think like that. It was my idea. And anyway, Clement said we don’t have to keep them forever. We can just look after them until he finds someone else, or…”

“They’re not _dogs_ , Blake,” said Yang, bouncing a fist on the mattress between them. “We’re talking about shuffling them around like animals! They’re kids! They’re people, and we can mess them up so badly if we’re not careful.”

Blake brushed her hand down over her face.

“You’re good with them.”

Yang let out a single note of laughter. It hung in the air between them, solid and crushing.

“We… may have rushed into this,” said Blake. The pillow was bothering her cat ears, and she shook them back and forth, still trying to get comfortable. “But it was both of us, okay? Not your fault.”

Yang took a deep, shaky breath.

“We’ll just do our best for now, I guess,” said Blake.

Suddenly, Yang threw an arm around Blake, rolling onto her stomach and pressing her face into Blake’s shoulder. Blake couldn’t help a small grin from surfacing.

“We’ll do the best damn best,” said Yang, voice muffled. Blake laughed.

“What does that even mean?”

Yang didn’t respond.

**********

Blake’s first groggy thought after waking up was that she was alone in the living room. The familiar weight of Yang was absent beside her, and the old air mattress had deflated a bit at night, leaving Blake’s back to lie on the ground while her limbs floated awkwardly around her.

As the reality of her situation came rushing back, she felt her stomach slowly knot into anxiety again. She pulled the blanket up to her nose, sighing deeply. Somewhere in this house were two lost kids who were counting on her to take care of them.

She laid there for a while, just taking in the feel of her pillow and blanket, before she took note of a familiar smell. Sweet and homey and very special-occasion. Yang was making pancakes.

Deciding she’d better help, Blake stretched, rubbed at her eyes, then rolled to the edge of the air mattress, sitting up with the blanket wrapped around her. She would never be able to understand how Yang woke up so fast in the morning.

Slowly abandoning the warmth of her blanket, Blake got to her feet, then padded down the hall to the kitchen.

“Good morning!” sang Yang, as soon as she caught sight of her. Every trace of her worry from last night was gone now, as she poked at a sizzling pancake with a spatula.

“Good morning,” said Blake, taking in the sight of the kitchen. Yang was cooking the pancakes while Nickel slowly stirred the batter, slopping it on the counter every now and then. Onyx was on Yang’s other side, standing on a box so he could see the counter, with his hands folded behind his back as he watched Yang cook. There was flour everywhere, all over the floor and counter and stove and even in the boys’ hair. 

Blake reached for the cloth, absent-mindedly dusting the countertop closest to her as Onyx caught sight of her, watching her again. It was extra surreal to see them here in the morning like this. They weren't just visiting. They were here for as long as Blake and Yang could handle them, and Blake had to do her best to connect with them. She forced herself to meet Onyx's gaze.

“G… good morning,” she said, waving the cloth at him a bit.

He grinned wildly, then turned quickly away from her and back towards the pancakes. Blake had no idea whether this was a good thing or not. 

“Careful not to stir it too much, they taste better when the batter still has some bubbles in it,” said Yang, tapping Nickel on the back of the hand. 

“I’m just stirring a little bit,” he said, dropping another huge dollop on the counter.

“Alright then. Hey, do you guys want to give Blake some pancakes and see what she thinks?”

“Yeah!” Shouted Onyx, jumping off the box and pumping a fist in the air. 

“Okay, here…”

Yang made up a plate for Blake, letting Nickel choose the best pancakes.

“Can you get her a fork from that drawer there?”

“This one?”

“Mm hm.”

Nickel reached in to grab Blake a fork, holding it by the prongs with his batter-covered hands. Blake had the feeling that there were a lot of gross hands in her future.

“Okay, Onyx, can you carry it over very carefully?”

“Yeah.”

She handed him the plate, and he gripped it in both hands, staring at it intensely as he carefully walked it over to Blake.

“Thank you,” she said, taking the plate from him. She pulled a chair out from the kitchen table, putting the pancakes in front of her and waiting.

She watched Yang for a bit, taking in her stretchy pyjamas and golden hair and pancake technique, before realizing that Nickel and Onyx were staring at her. She jolted to attention, glancing back and forth between them.

“Um…”

“Try it!” commanded Nickel, pointing at her with the spatula and whipping batter onto the floor. Blake flinched.

“Oh, right! Okay…”

Blake nervously cut off a bit of pancake with the side of her fork, not even bothering with syrup or jam or anything. She took a bite, and swallowed as quickly as she could. They tasted good. Like pancakes usually did.

“They’re great!” she said, with as much enthusiasm as she could work up this early in the morning.

Nickel and Onyx broke into wide grins, hopping back into position.

“I want some now,” said Onyx, tugging on Yang’s arm. She grinned, still focusing on the stove.

“What do you say?”

Onyx’s face wrinkled in confusion. 

“Please!” said Nickel, victoriously, hopping up and down.

“Please!” agreed Onyx.

Yang laughed musically, then prepared plates for both of them. Blake cringed as they brought the glassware over. Should she buy them plastic or something? Kids usually had plastic stuff, right? She didn’t want them to break anything.

The two slid into chairs across from her, immediately slathering their pancakes with an ocean of syrup each. Onyx pushed his plate towards Blake, and she stared at it in confusion.

“Cut it up,” he said, frowning. 

“Oh, alright.” Blake pulled it closer, leaning over towards the cutlery drawer to grab a knife.

She carefully sliced the pancake into tiny pieces, then handed it back to him. He immediately took a giant bite, chewing with a sloppy wet sound.

“So… uh… did you sleep well?” asked Blake. They seemed to be a little happier this morning.

Onyx shrunk back, looking to Nickel. Nickel leaned over and whispered a single word to him that Blake missed. 

They broke apart, still eating silently.

“Um… we’re going to get you your own things today. So you can have your own room.”

She mentally kicked herself. They already knew that.

They stayed silent, leaning over to each other, communicating through actions alone in some language Blake didn’t understand. 

She ate more pancake, and it stuck in her throat.

Yang settled down beside her, squeezing her knee under the table.

**********

“They’re so cute!” squealed Ruby, catching sight of the two boys, playing some game quietly with Yang in the living room. Onyx was kneeling by the coffee table, and Nickel was sitting on the couch, feet dangling in the air. They shrunk back, frowning, and Yang laughed. 

“This is my sister, Ruby. And our friend Weiss,” said Yang, by way of introduction. She nudged Nickel’s leg, but neither boy spoke. Weiss smiled, waving at them. Onyx lifted a hand as if he was going to wave back, but then grabbed Nickel’s pant leg with the hand instead.

“Everything’s still pretty new,” said Yang, apologetically.

“No problem!” said Ruby, laying the box she’d dragged in against the wall. “Just remember, your Auntie Ruby’s here to… uh… be really cool!”

Ruby turned away, face contorted in silent suffering. She mumbled something about introductions, then took off out the door to grab another load.

“Which room is this going in?” asked Weiss, gesturing to her box.

“Um… the spare room. Here, I’ll help you.”

Blake lifted up the other end of Weiss’ box, steering her up the stairs, down the hall, and into the spare room. They’d cleared out most of the junk already, but a few books were still stacked up along the walls.

Weiss nodded, face drawn back into the slightly disapproving expression it had been in ever since Blake had first contacted her about this. Weiss couldn’t believe that Blake and Yang could make a decision like this so hastily. Which was fair. Ruby had just been super excited to play with some kids, which was weird, but also very Ruby. 

Ruby appeared at the door then, carrying another box. 

It took them four trips to get everything into the room, and way longer to get everything assembled. There was a fair amount of arguing, ( _‘Ruby, that goes there! Obviously!’ ‘Weiss, I know! I’m running this project! I’m the leader!’_ ), even more stubbed toes, a lot of extra screws that Ruby ended up pocketing with a shrug, and a lot of rearranging things until Weiss was satisfied with the feel of it all. Blake just kind of followed along, amused.

It ended with them all sitting on a small bed decorated with blue and white stripes, sharing a box of cookies Ruby had somehow picked up during their shopping. Weiss admired the room, looking around and nodding every now and then. They had two beds (not bunk beds, much to Ruby’s disappointment), a dresser and bookshelf (in mismatched colours, much to Weiss’), and a nice comfy chair (because Blake had always dreamed of a comfy reading chair as a kid). 

“So…” said Ruby, crunching on a mouthful of cookie. “Tell me how this happened, again?”

Weiss leaned in, interest piqued.

“You already know the whole story,” said Blake, leaning back. “Mission, useless mom, heat of the moment.”

Ruby nodded, swallowing loudly. 

“So, what’s the plan, exactly? Dare I ask?” said Weiss, frowning. 

Blake brought her knees up to her chest, gnawing on the inside of her lip.

“I… I don’t know. We… take care of them, I guess.”

Weiss sighed.

“You two are too caring for your own good.”

Blake stared into the faces of her oldest friends, concerned gazes meeting her own, and almost burst into tears then and there.

“I… don’t know what I’m doing,” she admitted, so quietly she was sure she’d have to repeat herself. The emotions all came at once, flooding her stomach and chest and making it hard to breathe. She bit back a lump in her throat. 

Weiss and Ruby glanced at each other, Ruby shoving the cookies further down the bed in order to lean in and give Blake a quick hug.

“It’s instinctual, probably,” said Weiss, nodding. “People have been raising kids for as long as there’s been people, right? I’m sure you’ll be fine. Just… you know. Read up. Do your best.”

Blake took a deep breath, catching Weiss’ eye. She looked almost as panicked as Blake felt.

Ruby nodded passionately, making the bed bounce.

“Yeah! And Yang is really good at this sort of thing. I’m sure you’ll be able to figure it out.”

Blake sniffled, furious with herself as a tear rolled down her cheek.

Ruby and Weiss instantly converged, hugging her around the shoulders and the knees. This made her laugh, and then they were all laughing, and Blake wondered just when her life had become this absurd.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, this one's longer than all the other ones! That doesn't mean it's actually good, but... hooray? Dammit, do I ever want pancakes now.


	5. Shoes

“Woah there, where are you two going?” 

Yang put a hand protectively on the front doorknob. She and Blake had been just about to move some boxes to the garage, and had caught Nickel and Onyx fully dressed and ready to go. Blake set her box down, preparing for something. She wasn’t quite sure what.

Nickel backed away, folding his arms. Onyx shuffled backwards as well, stepping on the worn out legs of his too-long pants.

“We’re going exploring!” spat Nickel, not meeting Yang’s eyes. Blake bit her lip.

“You can’t go into the city alone! It’s dangerous!” said Yang, obviously taken aback.

“We go alone all the time,” said Nickel.

There was a pang in Blake’s heart. Yang folded her arms, a foot still planted firmly in front of the door.

“Now that you live here, you can only go out with Blake or me. That’s the rule,” said Yang, firmly. There was a short silence.

“No!” Nickel yelled, lunging forward. Blake startled at the sudden outburst, frozen as Nickel dissolved into a full-on tantrum. Yang moved to stand completely in front of the door, in a full defensive stance. Blake had no idea how she could stay so strong as Nickel wailed and screamed and lashed out at her.

Onyx, seeing his brother’s outburst, also started wailing. He threw himself to the ground, his little body crumpling. 

Blake figured she should definitely do something, so she focused on Onyx, kneeling down beside him and staring, heat rising in her face. There wasn’t really anything she could think to do. 

She looked towards Yang, trying to find some sort of guidance, and cringed as Nickel punched her over and over with repeated dull thuds. Yang frowned, arms folded and feet planted. Blake knew Yang could handle much worse than a six-year-old’s punches, but it was somehow worse to see Nickel hurting her than pretty much any enemy they’d faced.

“Okay, that’s it,” said Yang, through gritted teeth. She cracked her knuckles, then hauled Nickel over her shoulder in one swift motion. He continued screaming, skin reddened and nose running. Yang held firm through his squirming, as Blake chewed on the inside of her lip, wondering if she was supposed to do the same with Onyx. His tantrum didn’t seem quite as destructive as his brother’s, but it was bad behaviour, right?

Yang didn’t so much as look at Blake as she marched Onyx upstairs and to his room. Blake heard a door slam, and then she and Onyx were cut off from the sounds of Nickel’s screaming. Onyx’s fit died down almost immediately, from wailing to snuffling, but he didn’t get up off the floor.

Blake felt the familiar flutter of anxiety that had been pretty much constant lately. She stayed kneeling, reaching out a hand to Onyx and kind of petting his shoulder.

“Hey, um… it’s okay…”

He let out another wail, but his heart wasn’t in it. A few seconds passed, and he turned his blotchy face towards her. 

“I want to go outside,” he whimpered. 

“Um, we can all go outside later, if you want,” she said, thinking of the rule Yang had made.

“No, now,” he said, voice dangerously close to crying again.

“Well, you can’t right now,” said Blake, then immediately regretted it as he let out a dramatic sob, and turned away from her.

“You… we…” Blake sighed, collecting her thoughts. “Let’s do something else for now. We could, um… watch a movie?”

Movie seemed safe. Less talking, and a distraction for up to two hours if she picked carefully.

Onyx rolled back towards her, unable to hide a look of excitement. Blake assumed he hadn’t had much of a chance to watch movies, with how he’d been living up until now.

“Let’s go pick one out,” said Blake, shifting to stand up. There was a long, awkward silence.

“O…kay…” said Onyx, standing up beside her. He wiped his nose on the back of his hand, then grabbed Blake’s pant leg. She cringed a little, but allowed it, and led him to the couch, pulling up a movie catalog on her scroll. He wiggled up beside her, feet swinging, sitting so close that their legs touched.

“Okay, so, I guess we’re looking at kids’ movies…”

At that moment a very disheveled-looking Yang came walking down the stairs, frowned at Blake, then quickly switched to a weary smile for Onyx.

“I told your brother he can come back down in five minutes,” she said. She took in the sight of Blake and Onyx, her smile becoming more genuine.

“What are you two up to?”

“We’re picking out a movie,” said Blake, nodding to her scroll, which had made its way into Onyx’s lap.

“Ooh, I have a really good one! Hold on, let me find it…”

Yang plopped herself on the couch, on the other side of Onyx, and Blake felt herself calming down. She hadn’t realized how on edge she’d been until Yang took control back. She allowed herself to smile, watching as Yang bent her head over the scroll, muttering to Onyx, a lock of hair escaping from behind her ear. 

Blake placed herself in the background of this interaction, focusing on Yang’s smile and her scroll’s smudged screen and Onyx’s tail tickling her leg. 

**********

Onyx fell asleep halfway through the movie, leaving Yang to go check on Nickel and Blake to finally get back to the book she’d been reading. She’d started it long before their fateful mission, and hadn’t had a chance to pick it up since. She was right in the middle of a very tense scene between two lovers, and she definitely couldn’t put it off any longer. She felt a little guilty, leaving Yang to deal with Nickel on her own, but Yang insisted it was better this way. 

Blake was just returning to the living room, already cracking her book in anticipation, when she noticed that Onyx wasn’t on the couch anymore. Her heart jolted a bit, and she scanned the room for any sign of where he could have gone off to.

Her cat ears twitched at a rustling noise in the distance. It sounded like something in the kitchen. Blake immediately set her book down, then took off towards the kitchen with purposeful strides.

She entered to see the fridge wide open, Onyx standing in front of it with a giant bite of leftover pancakes halfway to his mouth. He was frozen, staring at her with eyes rounded in terror.

“Onyx?” asked Blake, but before she could form a proper thought he bolted, dropping the pancake on the floor, ducking under her arm, and scampering through the house as skillfully as if he’d lived here his whole life.

With a horror in the pit of her stomach, Blake heard the front door slam.

She stood frozen for a minute, brain still wildly trying to process what had just happened. Her pulse pounded in her ears, her hands curling and uncurling, sweat beading on her palms. A three year old child was now loose in the city. And she was responsible for him. If anything happened to him, it would be her fault.

He was _three years old._

Blake broke into a dead sprint, nearly collapsing as her socks slid on the tile floor. She pulled on the first pair of shoes she saw, something of Yang’s, then rocketed out the front door at top speed, mind still whirling from whatever had just happened.

Something about her had scared him. Even though she’d been doing her best to support him, to make it seem like she was calm and in control, she had scared him so much that he’d run away.

She reached the sidewalk, looking wildly back and forth, trying to figure out where he’d gone. A lady walking her dog paused to stare, and before Blake could open her mouth to ask the frantic question, the lady pointed left, and Blake took off without even thanking her.

He’d run away. He’d run away and it was her fault if anything happened to him and he was three and alone in the city and…

She caught sight of a bushy tail slinking around the corner up ahead and, pulse pounding, pushed her legs harder.

Onyx was fast, she had to hand it to him. Just like the squirrel he shared a trait with, he had an amazing knack for agility, jumping over obstacles and cutting through paths and speeding down the sidewalk with an ease that someone his age definitely shouldn’t possess. Blake would have admired it, if she wasn’t scared out of her mind.

They were approaching the main road now, and her she could hear cars in the distance, cold and cruel and so, so much bigger than Onyx. Her lungs burned.

“Onyx!” she screamed, desperate now. 

He looked back over his shoulder, then veered suddenly left, crashing into someone’s bush with a spectacular rustling sound. Blake dashed up to him as quickly as she could, and spotted him, curled up in between the branches, red-faced and crying.

“What – are you – doing?” wheezed Blake, in between gasps for air. All things considered they hadn’t actually gone that far from the house, but the fear of it had definitely taken years from Blake’s life.

Onyx only sobbed harder, muttering something unintelligible in not-quite-perfected words. She collected herself, taking in his trembling form and scratched, bare feet.

“You were scared,” said Blake, squatting down next to him. Slowly, he nodded. 

Blake took a deep breath. Okay. They were getting somewhere.

“Well, I was scared too, you know,” she said, shifting her feet as she balanced on them. Yang’s shoes were a little too small for her, and her toes were scrunched up rather painfully.

“S-scared?”

Onyx sniffled. 

“Scared,” said Blake, nodding. “I was scared you’d get hurt out here by yourself.”

“I know how to… run,” said Onyx, as if that explained everything. Blake felt herself smile, despite it all.

“Well, don’t run next time, okay? You don’t need to run.”

“I like running,” said Onyx. The tears had mostly stopped, but his face was still red and crumpled.

“Okay, well, you don’t have to run _away_. Not from me, okay?”

She held out a hand, not quite sure what she meant by it. 

“If you want food, you just have to ask. No need to steal. If you’re hungry, just tell me. I… I won’t get mad.”

A jolt went up Blake’s spine, and she stiffened as Onyx took her hand, tiny fingers lacing through her own. She marveled at the feel of it, so fragile and warm and trusting. She felt her heart slowing to a normal speed for just about the first time since she’d brought the boys home.

“Do you want to go back?” she asked softly. 

“Uh huh.”

“Can we walk this time?”

“Yeah.”

**********

On the third day, Blake and Yang woke up to the sound of loud, cheerful voices in the hallway. Blake rolled over, confused and hazy, while Yang stretched and sat up.

The boys burst into the room with all of their usual aplomb, but this time, instead of a quick demand or a cautious stare, Nickel launched into an explanation of what he wanted to do today, while Onyx nagged him about something from behind.

Blake could barely register anything they were saying as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes, slowly drawing herself into a sitting position. Had she been in a clearer state of mind, she would have realized that this was the most talkative the boys had ever been around her and Yang. And it was absolutely what they could expect to hear from then on.

Yang said something, and Blake didn’t even know what, but then the boys were laughing, and jumping up and down, and there was just so much energy in the room that Blake couldn’t help but laugh also.

As Blake slowly registered the room, she realized that the boys were fully dressed, although Nickel’s pants and shirt had horribly clashing patterns and Onyx’s shirt was inside out. They even had on shoes, ready to start the day.

“Can we go outside please?” asked Nickel, eyes darting shyly to the floor.

“Hmm, well, since you asked so nicely…”

Yang rolled over-top of Blake and onto the floor, crushing Blake’s chest a little. She ‘oof’ed softly.

Yang jumped onto the floor, raising her arms as if she’d done a spectacular landing. 

“I guess we’re going out for breakfast, Blakey,” she said, putting a hand on the covers and giving Blake’s knee a shake.

Blake pulled the blankets up to her face, warming at the embarrassing nickname. 

“I guess so.”

Blake slowly stepped out of bed, coaxed by Yang’s lopsided grin and Nickel’s impatient foot shuffles and Onyx’s shy smile.

“I put on… shoes,” said Nickel, squatting down to touch his feet. Sure enough, he had his shoes on already, velcro worn out and socks folding down around them. Blake made a mental note to pick up shoes for him soon.

“They’re… they’re on the wrong feet,” Blake said, voice crackly with sleep. 

Yang grinned more widely, nudging Onyx with a toe.

“Do you remember the other day? How I told you to answer that?”

Onyx looked confused, and Nickel cut in.

“I remember!”

He looked to Yang for approval, and she nodded. 

“But these are the only feet I have!” Nickel said, grinning toothily.

Blake groaned, while Onyx slowly repeated his brother’s words. He seemed to not quite understand the joke, but he saw Yang laughing and laughed along.

“You’re already corrupting them,” Blake mumbled, running a hand through her bed head. Yang gave her a tight side-hug in return.

“Just you wait.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this one took so long! Anyway that shoe joke was like my favourite thing as a child. I was hilarious.

**Author's Note:**

> So this is gonna be a multi chapter thing! I promise I will do my best. This is a very loose continuation to my fic "Fifteen Facts About Living With Blake Belladonna", so go ahead and read that one if you'd like.


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